[Treebound]

At the risk of some thread drift, I have a few questions. Does anybody recall a football player that was enrolled in the GSB while playing football? Ditto for the Law School and Med School? I don't remember any, but I must admit I haven't looked for this previously. I would assume it has happened at some point, but I don't recall it.

LB Kurt Colehower received his BA in Communications and his Master's in Sociology from Stanford, and he may have begun it as a fifth year senior during his last year of football.

After giving people time to respond, it appears that nobody has gone to Law School, Med School, or the GSB as a "5th year" student while also playing football at Stanford, at least that anybody here is aware. Bill McColl did attend medical school, but he was playing professionally at the time.  It would seem that what Dylan Powell is doing has never happened at Stanford.

The four year eligibility for football came into effect in the 1972-73 season. Before that, you only had three years of eligibility and had to play "freshman football". From that time forward, it would at least theoretically possible to red-shirt and also play four years of football. I would like to expand my original question a bit. It appears that at least Kurt Colehower got a masters while playing football. I am pretty sure there are others. I would appreciate others chiming in with names or guys who got an advanced degree while playing football and receiving a football scholarship.

What I am trying to determine here is how viable an option is it to actually do this at Stanford. I know this "poll" approach is a bit unscientific, but I have no other way to determine how common this may be. If it is quite uncommon, that would just add another reason to look elsewhere during a 5th year. I am sure plenty of guys need the 5th year just to manage the extra load of football coupled with academics. I am also sure some guys just want an "easy" last year for whatever reason. However, I would imagine that most guys who are 1) qualified to graduate, 2) not trying to improve their NFL draft position, and 3) intend to receive a football scholarship and play during their 5th year want to actually accomplish a tangible goal, like get an MA/MS. If that is so hard to do that few attempt it, that will also cause people to look elsewhere.

Goose, 
A few thoughts for you:
1) Patrick Skov:  made the graduate transfer to Georgia Tech, I believe, and played his final year of eligibility there and also attended GT's business school.  I think he is off in Europe working in the Financial/investment sector now.
2) Kevin Scott  '87/'87 (RB not DB), completed his Electrical Engineering Masters as a 5th year, before playing in the NFL.  Not Med, Law or Business, but very challenging none the less.  I'm sure there are others that have taken a similar approach.

I think it is extremely unlikely for a 5th year football player to gain admission to the GSB.  1) it's rare for a person to be admitted to the GSB right out of undergrad, unless you had some stellar entrepreneurial experience.  2) Given the rigors of football, I think it's even more unlikely that a football player could study, practice, play and have a start-up business on the side that would enable them to gain admission to a top tier business school, 3) Undergrads with little or no business experience would add very little to the business class discussions and culture, so most business schools like at least 2-3 years of post undergrad work experience.  4) Starting the Stanford GSB, Med or Law school, while playing football in the fall would be incredibly challenging to try and balance the workloads.   Not saying it can't be done, but that's a ton of work on multiple fronts.

[Treebound]

At the risk of some thread drift, I have a few questions. Does anybody recall a football player that was enrolled in the GSB while playing football? Ditto for the Law School and Med School? I don't remember any, but I must admit I haven't looked for this previously. I would assume it has happened at some point, but I don't recall it.

LB Kurt Colehower received his BA in Communications and his Master's in Sociology from Stanford, and he may have begun it as a fifth year senior during his last year of football.

After giving people time to respond, it appears that nobody has gone to Law School, Med School, or the GSB as a "5th year" student while also playing football at Stanford, at least that anybody here is aware. Bill McColl did attend medical school, but he was playing professionally at the time.  It would seem that what Dylan Powell is doing has never happened at Stanford.

The four year eligibility for football came into effect in the 1972-73 season. Before that, you only had three years of eligibility and had to play "freshman football". From that time forward, it would at least theoretically possible to red-shirt and also play four years of football. I would like to expand my original question a bit. It appears that at least Kurt Colehower got a masters while playing football. I am pretty sure there are others. I would appreciate others chiming in with names or guys who got an advanced degree while playing football and receiving a football scholarship.

What I am trying to determine here is how viable an option is it to actually do this at Stanford. I know this "poll" approach is a bit unscientific, but I have no other way to determine how common this may be. If it is quite uncommon, that would just add another reason to look elsewhere during a 5th year. I am sure plenty of guys need the 5th year just to manage the extra load of football coupled with academics. I am also sure some guys just want an "easy" last year for whatever reason. However, I would imagine that most guys who are 1) qualified to graduate, 2) not trying to improve their NFL draft position, and 3) intend to receive a football scholarship and play during their 5th year want to actually accomplish a tangible goal, like get an MA/MS. If that is so hard to do that few attempt it, that will also cause people to look elsewhere.

Goose, 
A few thoughts for you:
1) Patrick Skov:  made the graduate transfer to Georgia Tech, I believe, and played his final year of eligibility there and also attended GT's business school.  I think he is off in Europe working in the Financial/investment sector now.
2) Kevin Scott  '87/'87 (RB not DB), completed his Electrical Engineering Masters as a 5th year, before playing in the NFL.  Not Med, Law or Business, but very challenging none the less.  I'm sure there are others that have taken a similar approach.

I think it is extremely unlikely for a 5th year football player to gain admission to the GSB.  1) it's rare for a person to be admitted to the GSB right out of undergrad, unless you had some stellar entrepreneurial experience.  2) Given the rigors of football, I think it's even more unlikely that a football player could study, practice, play and have a start-up business on the side that would enable them to gain admission to a top tier business school, 3) Undergrads with little or no business experience would add very little to the business class discussions and culture, so most business schools like at least 2-3 years of post undergrad work experience.  4) Starting the Stanford GSB, Med or Law school, while playing football in the fall would be incredibly challenging to try and balance the workloads.   Not saying it can't be done, but that's a ton of work on multiple fronts.